There are several ways to make homemade ice cream, depending on available equipment and the texture and flavor you want for your ice cream. Basically, there are two styles of ice cream: French or custard-style, and Philadelphia or New York-style. French-style ice cream is made with a custard base which needs to be cooked before the ice cream making can begin, and it yields a very rich, creamy end-product. New York-style ice cream is made with fewer ingredients, and it has a lighter, more delicate flavor; it is also faster to make, since no cooking is required.
When ice cream is made, the ice cream base is churned in a sealed container while being slowly frozen from the outside. The churning incorporates air into the base while mixing it, which slowly freezes the base through to create the familiar dense texture of ice cream. Errors in this process can create ice cream which is grainy, ice cream with chunks of ice, or ice cream which is too soft, melting easily. Ice cream is typically made with ice and rock salt so that the freezing temperature of the ice is lowered, making the ice cream colder.
Making homemade ice cream will require some equipment for the freezing process. Many people like to use an ice cream maker, a machine which consists of a container with enclosed churning paddles which can be inserted into a larger container packed with ice and rock salt. The ice cream base is poured into the smaller container, which is then sealed and inserted into the larger container, and then the ice cream maker is churned, by hand or with a machine. This method tends to be the most reliable, although people should be aware that hand-churning can get onerous as the ice cream starts to thicken.
However, you don't need an ice cream maker for homemade ice cream. You can improvise one, as long as you have a watertight container and a larger container to put it in. Two coffee cans of varying sizes, for example, can be ideal. In this case, the ice cream base is put into the small container and sealed before it is packed into the larger container with ice and rock salt, and then the container can be rolled around on the floor until the ice cream hardens. Some companies sell ice cream balls, which work on the same principle.
Numerous recipes for custard-style homemade ice cream can be found on the Internet. In addition to custard ice cream bases, creme Anglaise also works very well for homemade ice cream. The flavor can be tweaked with the addition of spices and flavorings, and cooks can also add inclusions such as chocolate chips or fruit to their ice cream. For Philadelphia-style ice cream, equal parts of cream, milk, and sugar should be used as an ice cream base.
